Jim Tygart

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Jim Tygart was a World War II veteran who drove a jeep during the D-Day invasion and other campaigns before being wounded in the Battle of the Bulge.

The D-Day invasion launched on June 6, 1944. On the next day, Tygart went ashore at Omaha Beach, Normandy. It was in Belgium, after the start of the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, that he was wounded. The explosion, which destroyed his jeep, knocked him to the ground and left him with a serious leg wound.

Tygart was awarded the Purple Heart and went on to a career as an aircraft instrument mechanic with Douglas Aircraft and later American Airlines.

He was presented the French Legion of Merit medal by the French Consulate.

Jim was 102 when he died May 24, 2022.

As you listen to Jim tell his story you will feel close to the battlefields he experienced, heard on the podcast and oral history website VoicesOfOklahoma.com.

Chapter 2 - Log Cabin

John Erling (JE): My name is John Erling. Today’s date is December 8th, 2017. Jim, would you state your full name, please?

Jim Tygart (JT): I’m James Lowell Tygart.

JE: James Lowell?

JT: Yes.

JE: My middle name is Lowell, too, by the way.

JT: It is? L-O-W-E-L-L?

JE: Yup. And how do you spell your last name?

JT: T-Y-G-A-R-T.

JE: Your date of birth?

JT: March 31st, 1920.

JE: Which makes your present age?

JT: 97.

JE: Where are we recording this interview?

JT: In Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, in my home.

JE: And who is in the room with us?

JT: My son, Delbert.

JE: Delbert, nice to have you here.

Delbert Tygart (DT): Thank you!

JE: Where were you born?

JT: I was born in a log cabin in the hills of Missouri.

JE: Where in Missouri?

JT: The post office address was Aldrich, Missouri. That’s 40 miles northwest of Springfield, down in the hills, no electricity, no running water, no heat except for the wood we cut.

JE: You were born in a log cabin.

JT: Yes, I was.

JE: Abraham Lincoln was, too, wasn’t he?

JT: Yes.

JE: And you went on to serve your country as well. Your mother’s name?

JT: Norma. Her maiden name was Fries.

JE: Where did she grow up?

JT: She grew up in that same country right there.

JE: What was her personality like?

JT: She had a good personality, because I never remember her switching me or anything. She threatened a few times, but I don’t remember her ever switching me or nothing.

JE: Your father’s name?

JT: James Corey Tygart

JE: He grew up in that same area?

JT: Yes.

JE: Tell about his personality. What was he like?

JT: Same way. I mean, of course, he was a more of a disciplinarian, to say the least. He kept you lined out.

JE: Did you have brothers or sisters?

JT: Had 3 sisters, 1 brother.

JE: What did you father do for a living?

JT: He was a farmer.

JE: What kind of farming was that?

JT: We had a 106-acres farm, and he raised everything there was to raise. He raised cows, we had about 8 or 10 horses, we raised our own food, and raised our own pigs, raised our own sheep to shear, and raised geese to pick to fill up the feather beds. We were self-sufficient out there on that farm.

JE: You lived there on that farm until you were how old?

JT: Well, when we moved there, I kinda remember going from Alderidge to the farm, which is 7 miles in a horse and wagon with my dad. I kinda remember that, so I had to be somewhere around 3 or 4 years old.

JE: And then you lived there for how many years?

JT: About 17 years.

JE: What do you recall doing for fun out there, on the farm?

JT: (Chuckling) You had to make your own fun. The only fun you had was riding horses, and you were busy working. I mean, we milked about 12 to 15 cows. That was our cash crop, the milk. You just worked all the time, that was your fun.

JE: What about schooling? Was it a one-room schoolhouse?

JT: You’d be surprised: It had 3 rooms in it! (Laughing). They had the first 4 grades in one room and then the next 4 grades in another one, and then — not the high school — but 9th and 10th grade in the other room. When you got through the 10th grade, you had to go to Dadeville, Missouri to get the last 2 grades.

JE: What year did you graduate from high scool?

JT: 1938.

JE: You were how old then?

JT: 18.

JE: How does the family get to Tulsa? Why did they come to Tulsa?

JT: My dad had a sister that lived in Tulsa. She lived here on 6th St and Lewis in a big house and rented out rooms for people. She begged him, and begged him, and begged him to come to Tulsa and he finally, with the hard work on the farm, did it. We came down here in 1939.

JE: Where did you live when you came to Tulsa?

JT: 2627 East 5th Place, which is taken over by schools now.

JE: That’s in the TU area.

JT: Yeah. I’ve been told that everytime a piece of land come for sale out there that TU buys it up.

JE: Yeah.

JT: They’re getting that whole section.

JE: In the ‘30s, we had the Dust Bowl. We call them “The Dirty ‘30s,” we also hard The Great Depression, which started in ‘29 and lasted until ‘41. Any thoughts about that or remembering hearing about it?

JT: Well, I had things to happen. My sister was married to a highway engineer, and in the Dust Bowl days, they were shipped out in the panhandle to build some roads out there, and I hear my sister talk about putting wet towels around the cracks in the doors so they could breathe.

JE: This was largely in the western part of Oklahoma, because here in Tulsa, you didn’t feel the effects of the Dust Bowl. What about The Depression? Stock market crash October 29th?

JT: Well, that didn’t have anything to do with us because we didn’t have no stocks.

JE: So it didn’t affect your state of living or anything like that?

JT: No, no. Nothing like that.

JE: Then you’re living in Tulsa, and you’re 18, 19 after high school?

JT: Yes.

JE: What are your first memories of Tulsa and what you might have done for entertainment?

JT: Well, the only entertainment I remember is going out to Mohawk Park with my sister. She and I would go out there for picnics. We’d also go downtown at the theater — they had to of them down there — one on 4th St. and another on Main Street.

JE: Do you remember any of the movies that you might have seen then?

JT: No, I don’t. But I remember one of them had the accordion that he played it in the intermission.

JE: So the movies were cut into intermissions?

JT: Oh, yeah. And he played the accordion down there at the intermission.

JE: Yeah. How about radio? Remember listening to radio much then?

JT: That’s our only thing we had was radio.

JE: Remember listening to Franklin Delano Roosevelt — FDR?

JT: Yes.

JE: His fireside chats?

JT: Yeah.

JE: Remember in downtown Tulsa, the stores, or grocery stores, or hamburger places?

JT: Denver Grill was down there, the main one. Up further on Denver was a White Castle hamburger joint.

JE: Did you go out to eat a lot?

JT: No, no. I didn’t go out to eat. Didn’t have the money to do anything like that.

JE: You come to Tulsa at 18 years old, and what do you do then?

JT: I went to National Biscuit Company at 10 North Guthrie and was unloading their boxcars of crackers, and cookies, or whatever they had to unload, because most everything was hauled in there on a boxcar. And that was the first job I had, unloading them boxcars of crackers.

JE: Did you stay there for a while? Did you get promoted?

JT: Yes. After I unloaded for awhile, I went to driving the truck, delivering crackers and stuff, all over Tulsa, to grocery stores. The main one I remember was going in the northeast Oklahoma area. We’re talking about back when most of the roads were gravel and muddy. Highway 33, but it was never two-lane. When I got to 59 going into Grove, it was gravel. Of course, at that time, the Grand River Dam was being built. They probably closed the gate in ‘41.

JE: — ‘39, ‘41.

JT: I’m not sure of the exact dates.

JE: ‘39, ‘40, yes.

JT: I delivered in Bernice before it was moved. It was right in the middle of that, Bernice, Oklahoma. I delivered to that place before it was moved.

JE: Hmm.

JT: Going down Highway 33, every two miles, there’s a little grocery store.

JE: Oh.

JT: They’re not that way no more, but people back then, they could only go so far to get groceries.

JE: Remember the brand of truck you drove?

JT: Yeah. It was an International. ‘39 International. I didn’t drive it that long, though, because in late ‘39, ‘40, ‘41 was when I got called. Roosevelt had initiated that all 21-year-olds would serve a year in the service.

Chapter 3 - Pearl Harbor

Jim Tygart (JT): When I become 21 years old, they grabbed me right quick (Chuckling).

John Erling (JE): And how did you feel about that?

JT: I didn’t know what to think about it, because… (Chuckling)

JE: Everybody else was doing it, I guess?

JT: Yeah.

JE: 1941. You went into the Army.

JT: September ‘41 I went in.

JE: Okay. Where did you go for basic training?

JT: I went to Fort Sill, Oklahoma and I spent 3 months down there. On Pearl Harbor Day, I happened to be home that Sunday, on leave; and when they happened they put out the orders for everybody to return to the base. Well, I went back to Fort Sill and they picked me up and sent me to San Antonio, Texas.

JE: What were you going to do there?

JT: Since I had the record of a truck driver, when I went down there the first morning that I was there, the Mess Sergeant had me go with him to pick up supplies for our unit. He immediately found out that I knew how to drive a truck, so, I was on my own from then on. He didn’t go with me anymore.

JE: So that was pretty good duty, wasn’t it?

JT: Yeah.

JE: You know, it’s interesting. A lot was going on then when Pearl Harbor was attacked. War was underway already and it was in 1941, the latter part of the year, the Germans were bombing London at that time. Even Buckingham Palace was hit in December of ‘41, and then as you said, Pearl Harbor. We talk about Pearl Harbor, the attack by the Japanese, but Japan declared war on the United States, the United Kingdom… They invaded Thailand, they launched attacks on Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Wake Island … All of that went on, and Americans just think it was Pearl Harbor, but they were after many countries at that time.

JT: Yes.

JE: The headlines you think about. December 11th: “Germany and Italy Declare War on the United States,” and then the United States reciprocates and declares war on Germany and Italy. “Japanese Landings on the Southern Philippine Islands,” “United States and United Kingdom Declare War on Romania.” The country had to be pretty nervous. You heard all this and wondering … what about your future?

JT: Well, it probably wasn’t as much as you think because I had no television or such thing. And daily service was not a radio, so there was a lot more going on than I realized, probably.

JE: On December 7th, ‘41, tell me exactly how you first heard about…

JT: I had been to church with my mother and father. When we came home from church, I turned the radio on, which was the normal thing; and it came over the radio immediately after that. The report came for us to report back to duty. I got to Oklahoma City on the bus and there was so many soldiers going back to Fort Sill that they couldn’t catch a bus, so Fort Sill sent one up there to get us. There was so many soldiers, there wasn’t enough buses to carry us. They had to come up to get us.

JE: Was that a frightening experience — not knowing where you were going to go?

JT: It was frightening in a way, because you just didn’t know what was going on. I’ve had a lot of people say, “Was ya scared?” I don’t know how to answer that because you was concerned more than scared. People that got scared had a nervous breakdown and was shipped out. That’s the only way I can answer that question.

JE: Did that make you wonder if you were going to have a breakdown or not?

JT: No, I never did have that feeling.

JE: Did you feel that, “I need to guard against that.”

JT: I never did think about it at all.

JE: Your mind wasn’t even going there.

JT: No.

JE: You were assigned to a battalion?

JT: A headquarters battery. A headquarters of the second division, which is the Indian Head division. At that time, the only communication you had was radio, which was undependable. We had to tie the 12th, 15th, 37th, 38th field artillery together with a wire section. Like I said, radio wasn’t dependable. The ones we had was line-of-sight radios. You had to get on top of a hill, so you had to get telephone wire. Our headquarters — that was our job — to tie up the 12th, 38th, 37th, and 15th field artillery together so they could talk to each other.

JE: You were driving a truck at that time?

JT: I was driving a jeep. I was on the wire truck for a while; that’s what we called it: the wire truck, which had a crew on it laying wire along the byroads. But I didn’t drive it for long because I got into the jeep driving, and I don’t know exactly what caused it.

JE: What happens to you next after you’re assigned to your battalion? Where do you go then?

JT: That was in San Antonio, Texas.

JE: Okay.

JT: After we left — we did leave San Antonio, Texas in the year of ‘42. We loaded up and went to Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. We got up there in September. We was up there all winter long. We was on snow skis, not pleasure skiing, we was going across country and I thought we was going to Russia (Laughing). But it didn’t turn out that way.

JE: You were at Camp McCoy for how long?

JT: We was up there ‘til September of 1942.

JE: Then what happens?

JT: We got on a train — when we was rolled up and ready to leave Camp McCoy — I had a sister that had a childbirth and was on her deathbed, and I got emergency leave with the Captain to come to Tulsa and see my sister, which turned out to be a mistake because she was in a coma and never did know I was there. But I only had 24 hours.

I asked my commander, “What happens if she dies?”

And he said, “You’d be right back here.”

JE: You wouldn’t be able to stay for her funeral or anything, huh?

JT: No.

JE: Well, that was nice that they let you go.

JT: Yes it was.

JE: Do you leave Camp McCoy then?

JT: On the train and went to New York. Now, I don’t remember the place we was at there in New York, while we was at [unintelligible]. But we was there 3 days and we got on the boat — a liberty ship. It’s an old cargo boat, but it ain’t very big. We got out in the rough water, everybody got sick except Jim. (Laughing)

JE: (Laughing)

JT: Everybody got sick. I had all kinds of things to do. Even up on the bridge, the captain’s man got sick and I had to take over his radio, so I had contact with our convoy of ships going across the Atlantic all the time.

JE: You’re headed to where?

JT: I didn’t know where we was headed to; we was just out in the water, but we landed in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

JE: On that journey, you didn’t know where you were going until you reached your destination.

JT: Right. Our shipped were zig-zagged because, at that time, the Germans had control of the Atlantic ocean, and I was swore to secrecy on whatever I heard on the radio, because I’d hear where a submarine was out there, or a submarine was over here, and I couldn’t go down there and tell the rest of the guys about that. I had to keep it up here. (Chuckling)

JE: Ah. So, you were in control of that ship for a while.

JT: Just the radio, yeah. One time, the battleship that was with us left his course and headed out across there and the commander of our ship got all nervous. I knew what was going on; he was going on there to pick up a radio to take to one of the other ships that had lost their radio. Finally, he had asked me what was going on, and I told him, and he said, “Why didn’t you tell me?!” (Laughing)

JE: (Chuckling) That in itself was a major initiation to …

JT: … To what was going on, yessir.

Chapter 4 - Normandy

John Erling (JE): In Belfast, how long are you there and what’s going on there then?

Jim Tygart (JT): We went to Gosford Castle in Northern Ireland. That’s up by Armagh. It was a castle. It had brick walls all the way around it. They had hutches built all around this thing. We went in there and landed about midnight that night and filled up our mattress ticks with straw, the hutches, and just slept on them. (Chuckling)

JE: You’re about 21 years old here, aren’t you?

JT: I got plum up to 22 or 23 by now, yeah.

JE: Alright. So you’re in this castle?

JT: Well, the majority of our 110 people thereabout were in these hutches. I was in the castle in the one room that we had. That’s all that they let us have was the one room in the castle. Them people there, they take care of them castles and they don’t want them destroyed. But we had one room for the switchboard operator. And since I was driving a jeep and had to be on notice to go here, or there, or wherever, I got to stay in that room.

JE: What was the purpose of being in that castle?

JT: Well, we knew we were going somewhere. We had no idea where because we stayed there in that castle ‘til March of ‘44 and then we went down to Scotland through England. This is on a convoy — a forced march, we call them. We went through England, down to Wales; we stayed there about a month. We knew we was fixing to do something, of course, we didn’t know what was going on. My jeep, I waterproofed it while I was there. We was there up at that place for about 30 days and I waterproofed it so it would run underwater.

JE: What did you think was going to happen?

JT: I knew that jeep was gonna get wet sooner or later. (Laughing)

JE: (Chuckling) Right.

JT: But I didn’t have no idea where. It’s the time down in South America and all of that stuff was going on, and Italy was going on. Of course, I wasn’t on good contact with that because the only contact you had was the radio, and I didn’t have a radio. I didn’t much know what was going on, but I knew that I should waterproof my jeep to get it wet. We loaded up on one of those liberty ships again, and it was so crowded that they assigned you a spot to sleep 8 hours and then you had to get up and turn that spot over to somebody else. But I didn’t go down there. I found out what was going on and I stayed up on the deck. I didn’t want down in that hole.

JE: So where did you sleep?

JT: On the deck.

JE: In the open air?

JT: Right. In the open air.

JE: And the seabreeze and the water coming on.

JT: Well… (Chuckles). Most of it was just shrapnel falling out of the sky from the fights going on above you.

JE: So you were taking …?

JT: Oh, yeah. We was taking hits. Taking hits. Not direct hits, just shrapnel coming from all the gun fights that was going on above you.

JE: So you’re still wondering where you’re going.

JT: Right.

JE: This is 1944.

JT: Yeah.

JE: And it would have been sometime in May that you were there.

JT: Yes.

JE: We’re leading up to June 6th, 1944. And that was the invasion finally kicking off in Normandy. This was the largest seaborne invasion in our history, and it began the liberation of France. When did you realize that you were a part of the invasion?

JT: We set out there in that bay, off the coast; I didn’t know what coast it was. Well, I knew it was somewhere around the German coast. We set out there probably 3 or 4 days because, if you look at history, the weather got bad and the waves got high, and Eisenhower put the launch off for a day or two, I don’t know exactly how many days, because of high seas and high wind.

JE: And you still don’t know what’s going to happen yet, do you?

JT: No.

JE: So he put it off, but then, June 6th — the invasion finally kicked off at Normandy.

JT: Yes.

JE: Did you know then, on that date, what was going on?

JT: In a way you knew what was going on, but you didn’t realize the mass production of it.

JE: Forces went in at Omaha Beach.

JT: They put my jeep on the landing craft, and me in it. We pushed up to the water and they flapped the door down, and I drove off into the water. That water was only about 2 or 3 feet deep, and I said, “This wasn’t bad. I didn’t even need to waterproof it!” This is what’s going through your head, you know? But about that time, I hit a shell hole or something and it dumped the whole thing — and guess what? It just kept right on running.

JE: You’d done a good job of waterproofing it.

JT: Yes.

JE: Do you remember what you did to waterproof it? Tell us about that.

JT: It’s what we call “elephant gunk.” It’s just a very putty like stuff that just doesn’t get hard or brittle or anything like that. And, of course, back then, only thing you had to waterproof was the headlights, generator, battery, and underneath the dashboard. That took care of it.

JE: That’s amazing, isn’t it? That engine did not stop.

JT: Did not stop, no sir.

JE: And we should say, this is the next day, after the initial invasion. This would be June 7th, the second wave that comes in. The jeep is underwater — you’re floating?

JT: Oh, I just stayed right with it.

JE: Underwater?

JT: Yeah.

JE: Okay. How long does this last?

JT: Oh, just a couple of seconds. I just drove right on out.

JE: Some guys might have panicked and let loose of the wheel.

JT: No, no.

JE: But you stayed with the jeep?

JT: Oh, yeah. I just kept right on.

JE: I suppose since you knew the engine was running, and you probably couldn’t see anything…

JT: Well, it wasn’t quite that deep. It was probably just waist deep or more.

JE: This was daylight?

JT: Yeah, this was daylight.

JE: The jeep is underwater, and you drive it — you surface pretty fast then.

JT: Yeah. Right on out.

JE: Wow. (Chuckling) You wondered, “Is this gonna get any worse than this?” That was then on Omaha Beach.

JT: Yes.

JE: What did you see?

JT: Well, it was destruction. I’ve heard people say that they stepped over dead bodies, well, I didn’t experience that because people understood that if you had to stepped over an American soldier, well, that was depressing to you. There’s a lot of dead Germans, but not dead Americans. There was supposedly 15,000 people that got killed that day of June 6th, but I never did see none of them 15,000. I mean, a few of them, but not…

JE: So you’re saying that they picked up the bodies already before you guys came in?

JT: Yeah.

JE: So then is shrapnel coming on? Are the Germans shooting at you?

JT: Oh, definitely. The first thing you do… I took a Captain in. And I don’t know where he went to. I know where I went to. I took my jeep, camouflaged it, and dug a foxhole, so that I could get in it in case I needed to. That’s the first thing you always done was dig you a foxhole to hide from the shrapnel or the bullets or whatever.

JE: How deep would a foxhole be?

JT: Just probably 2 feet.

JE: Enough to get under?

JT: Ground level.

JE: Right. You know, a couple of summers ago, my family and I traveled and we visited Normandy and Omaha Beach, and I remember those big cliffs.

JT: Yeah.

JE: I marveled at how those soldiers repelled up those cliffs.

JT: Yeah.

JE: That was pretty amazing, wasn’t it?

JT: Yeah.

JE: You and I are looking at the same scene right now.

JT: Yeah.

JE: Pretty amazing.

JT: I went in on the beach, not the cliff.

JE: I understand. They had done that. Tell me about soldiers around you, because they knew, and you knew, too, that you could get shot at any moment. Is that true?

JT: Yeah. It was a realistic thing that you could get shot. You knew it. My Staff Sergeant got shot on the second day I was there — not just wounded, but dead.

JE: Mmm.

JT: And that puts you on service that you could get shot.

JE: How did that work for you? Did it embolden you to say, “I don’t care,” or did it make you slink back and get nervous? How did you handle that?

JT: I don’t know. (Laughing) I really don’t know how I handled it. I think, like I’ve said before, it was more of a concern than it was fear. One thing that we had to watch was the French girls over there in that area had got friendly with the German soldiers. And they were sniping our soldiers, killing us, because they thought more of the German soldiers being there with them for 4 years than they did of us.

JE: Explain that again.

JT: Germans had occupied France for about 4 years.

JE: Yes.

JT: And them soldiers had been in that area. Well, these French girls had gotten acquainted with them, and they liked them, and they were snipers for the Germans.

JE: Wow.

JT: Yeah. So you couldn’t trust the Frenchman, even.

JE: “Snipers,” meaning that they had weapons with them. I remember the bunkers that the Germans had dug in, as we went up on land, and I remember being impressed with how they were all concrete, and, of course, as you said, they lived there for 4 years. This was a major deal and major areas for sleeping. It wasn’t just a dugout; it was a major bunker.

JT: Right around the peninsula, which was, mileage-wise, probably 30 miles, was Brest and that was a German submarine base. Our first deal was to capture what they call “Hill 192,” it was the highpoint in that area and we were there for probably 6 weeks in capturing that Hill 192. After we got Hill 192 captured, we moved around the peninsula to get the Germans out of that Brest submarine base, and that took us another 6 weeks. But at that time, the regular army outfit had marched mostly across France and had captured all that France area. Of course, the Germans didn’t really fight much in France. They just moved back to the Rhine River and things like that.

JE: Was there a time you thought, “I’m just never going to get out of this.”

JT: Well, that was part of it.

JE: Yeah. You figured, “I gotta do my job. I might not get out of it, so let’s just go ahead and perform our job.”

Chapter 5 - Battle of the Bulge

John Erling (JE): So after you captured Brest, France, you moved on to where?

Jim Tygart (JT): We moved on to St. Vith, Belgium.

JE: The Germans were pretty easy to push back then, apparently, at that time.

JT: Other divisions had already cleared that out. When we left Brest, we just convoyed straight to St. Vith, Belgium.

JE: They were basically on the run.

JT: Yeah. They had already moved back. They did not do a lot of fighting in France to try to save it.

JE: But that didn’t mean that you were not going to come under fire.

JT: No.

JE: Because they were shelling, you were staying in a house.

JT: Well, when we were in St. Vith, the Germans had invented this buzz bomb. You’ve probably heard of it. They was shooting them over us. It really wasn’t dangerous, but you could hear them a’coming. Buzz — slooooow, slow, slow. And you could probably hear them for 5 minutes and then they’d shut off when they had run out of fuel. And then down they’d go and they’d blow up. But they couldn’t aim them to nobody. So it worked on you up here. They wasn’t dangerous. It was just a mental thing. When you’d heard them all night long, it’d keep you awake.

JE: Because you never knew whether it was going to …

JT: Probably shut off.

JE: Yeah.

JT: And you could hear them for, seems like 5, 10 minutes just coming. And then all of the sudden, they’d just run out of fuel, and down they go and blow up.

JE: This was leading to a big battle then, wasn’t it?

JT: When the Germans invaded at the Belgian Bulge they call it.

JE: The Battle of the Bulge.

JT: The Battle of the Bulge, yes.

JE: Right.

JT: It was in Elsenborn, Belgium.

JE: This was the last major German offensive of Western Europe.

JT: Yes, it was. When they started the Belgian Bulge, it happened in the nighttime and the Germans was shelling us bad. We was in a farmhouse in Elsenborn. We knew that something was going on and, at daylight, our captain sent me and my jeep and my radio up on the hill to watch for German tanks. Sure enough, down there about a quarter of a mile was 2 of them. I didn’t know at the time, but they had run out of fuel, which, I was glad that they had. I didn’t know it then.

JE: So you brought that report back.

JT: Yeah. I went back that evening; that’s when we made our bid retreat. We had to get out of there and change positions.

JE: You heard the incoming German shells.

JT: It was at nighttime when we was trying to sleep. It was wintertime. There was probably 6 to 8 inches of snow on the ground. It was not 0 weather, but it was probably about 28 degrees and sloppy weather.

JE: Wow. You’re cold all the time, weren’t you?

JT: Yeah.

JE: But one of those bombs eventually hit you.

JT: I was at an anti-tank destroyer headquarters one night. I took a Captain over there and I was on my radio out in front, in my jeep, and I heard the German 88 millimeters coming.

JE: The whistling sound?

JT: Yeah. So, I jumped out of my jeep and headed for this house where this office was. The shell hit behind me. It probably knocked me 8, 10 feet before I got in the door of this house. Inside this house was this basement. There was other soldiers in there and they helped me down in this basement. We had to stay in there for, probably, 30 or 40 minutes while we was being shelled.

JE: But you were hit by shrapnel.

JT: Yes.

JE: Everybody else got in ahead of you.

JT: Yes.

JE: You were the last one to get in.

JT: I was the last one to get in.

JE: And you were the first one to get hit.

JT: I don’t know how many of them got hit, but as far as I know, I was the only one.

JE: Which leg is it?

JT: Right.

JE: Tell us what’s happening. Do you feel it, or are you numb? What happened?

JT: The first thing I felt was blood running down my leg. I reached down there to see what was wrong with my leg and I got blood on my hand. When the shelling was over with, the other soldiers got me out of there and put me into a medical unit. Of course, I didn’t know at the time that I was hurt that bad. I didn’t feel that bad.

But when they put me in the ambulance, I was sitting up, and they had two stretchers in there and a row of seats over here for other people. When we got to the first field hospital, I got out of that ambulance, and I fell. The nurse said, “Put him on a stretcher!” So, they got me on the stretcher and I began to realize then that I had a problem.

JE: Huh. Let’s go back to your jeep. Did your jeep make it through that attack?

JT: Oh, no, no. When I came out of that house, it was just a mass of tin. It had been hit directly. I don’t know which shell got it. You know, there’s more than one that came in there at a time. But one of them hit it directly — blew it all to pieces.

JE: That jeep that you put so much time into.

JT: Yeah.

JE: Are you thinking, “Well, I could have been killed.” And so maybe having your leg hit wasn’t so bad?

JT: Yeah, I thought I was pretty fortunate.

JE: You realize how serious this leg injury is.

JT: That was the 21st. They got me back on the hospital train to Paris, France. And on the 25th of December, I was laying in an auditorium-like, on a stretcher. I was still in my old, dirty clothes. They’d been cut off of me, part of them, but I was still in my old, dirty clothes.

JE: You’d been in those clothes for how long?

JT: It ain’t no telling how long.

JE: Weeks.

JT: Weeks. (Chuckling). Weeks.

JE: Yeah. They ripped the clothes off of you.

JT: And wrapped up my leg. They didn’t know what was wrong with me or anything else, and I didn’t know what was wrong with me. They just wrapped it up like that and sent you on to France. I was there Christmas Day in 1944. And the little French girls came through there singing Christmas carols to everybody that was in there.

JE: When did the doctors know that you have shrapnel in your leg? When does that become known?

JT: It became known after I left there. I was put on a train to some part of France. I don’t know what part, and I was put onto a hospital ship. They were all white and had a cross on top of them. You know, it was the international law that you can’t bomb them things. I was put on one of them and I told the girls when they put me in bed, “This is the first white sheet I’ve saw in three years!” (Laughing)

JE: I suppose it was! (Laughing). Let’s go back — as you were lying on this stretcher in this auditorium, it was Christmas Day, you had to feel pretty down.

JT: Oh, I was crying. I was. I definitely was crying.

JE: Probably thought it was the worst day of your life. And here we’re coming up to Christmas here pretty soon, and your thoughts probably go back to that day and how fortunate you were from that day forward, to this life that you’ve been able to live here.

JT: Yes.

JE: But at that time, you didn’t know that.

JT: No.

JE: What about your family back in Tulsa? What do they know about what’s going on?

JT: I have no idea when my mother got the notice. My sister said that come home just to console her (Voice cracking, crying).

JE: Yeah. The emotion’s still with you, all these years, and that’s very understandable.

JT: I am an emotional person.

JE: Yeah. When did you learn more about what the shrapnel had done to your leg?

JT: When I got to England, my leg was paralyzed. I had what you’d call “drop foot.”

JE: Oh.

JT: I got to England and the doctor there said that he would do more damage to get the shrapnel out of my leg than to leave it in there. But my leg was burning like fire because it hit the nerve.

JE: The sciatic nerve?

JT: Yes, the sciatic nerve. It didn’t cut it in two. If it’d cut it in two, I’d been paralyzed for life.

JE: Wow.

JT: But since it didn’t cut it in two, it regenerated, but it took a heck of a lot of years to do it. I was in the bed in England and this warden, this nurse boy, we called him “warden man,” he was actually an Army nurse. I was in bed and he said, “What are you doing in bed?”

Because, you know, I was in pretty good shape. I said, “I can’t walk.”

And he went and got me a shoe, put a bungee cord on it, and tied it up to my knee and said, “Take off!”

JE: And then you were on crutches.

JT: I did have crutches, yeah, but I walked with the bungee cord.

JE: Explain that. I’m trying to see that: they put a bungee cord on your ankle?

JT: On the toe of my boot and tied it up to my knee.

JE: Oh.

JT: To hold that drop foot up. The foot was floppy.

JE: You didn’t have any control over it?

JT: No.

JE: That gave you control. So then you were able to walk that way?

JT: Yes. I was able to walk. Not good, but walk.

JE: What was to be accomplished by that?

JT: Just to get you out of bed. That’s a major thing — get you out of bed.

JE: Yeah. You were awarded a Purple Heart for this, weren’t you?

JT: Yes.

JE: Then you had a long recovery ahead of you.

JT: Well, I got out of the hospital in England. They put me on the Queen Elizabeth to bring me back to the United States.

JE: What year are we talking about now?

JT: We’re talking about ‘44.

JE: That was December. You spent Christmas Day there, right? In ‘44? So you’re coming back to the United States.

JT: Landed in New York City; I don’t know what day it was, but I came in there at daylight, and I’m sure they’d done it on purpose so we could see the Statue of Liberty.

JE: What a thrill that had to be.

JT: Yeah.

JE: Cheering?

JT: No cheering because there wasn’t nobody there when we got there, no.

JE: You were on a ship with many, many other soldiers.

JT: Yes.

JE: They must have been cheering to see that sight.

JT: No doubt.

Chapter 6 - Nightmares

John Erling (JE): Then?

Jim Tygart (JT): I was put on a hospital train and shipped to Temple, Texas. They had an Army hospital down there — may still be there, I don’t know. I was there until July.

JE: Of ‘45.

JT: Yeah.

JE: What are you thinking here? You’ve got this wound. It comes from the battle with the Germans. What’s going through your head? Is it making you mad, sad, or what’s going on?

JT: I don’t think I was sad, I think I was just glad to be alive. That’s the way I figured it. I thought I was pretty fortunate because there was a lots of ‘em that wasn’t.

JE: Thousands went on Omaha Beach, up to 10,000 soldiers were lost.

JT: Yeah.

JE: And you could have easily been one of them.

JT: Could have been.

JE: Did you ever think, “Why me?”

JT: I’ve thought it many times, yeah.

JE: Do you remember bullets coming close to you or feeling them around you?

JT: No bullets, schrapnel.

JE: Which could have killed you.

JT: Yeah.

JE: Came very close to you. When you came on the beach?

JT: Oh, yeah. Our worst time was in the Belgian Bulge.

JE: Okay.

JT: It was the closest time we had to the bullets and whatnot.

JE: Alright.

JT: Was in the Belgian Bulge.

JE: And that’s when you were taking fire.

JT: Yeah.

JE: And thought, “Any one of these could be hitting me.”

JT: Right.

JE: And it hit people close to you?

JT: Oh, yes, but field artillery was not a high-casualty outfit; and I was in the field artillery. The infantry boys was the ones that got shot, and got shot, and got shot. We did not have to deal with rifle fire. We had to deal with heavy artillery fire, but not rifle fire.

JE: They say, “There are no atheists in foxholes.”

JT: I don’t think so.

JE: I interviewed another veteran. He made several landings on the beaches and he was in the Marines. He said he could hear the other soldiers crying out, “Momma, Momma, Momma!” And he says, “Here we are, these brave Marines, and soldiers were calling for their mother.” I don’t know if you heard any of that, or praying to God, or whatever.

JT: No, I didn’t hear none of that.

JE: We’ve got you back in the United States, and you’re in a medical hospital in Temple, Texas.

JT: Yes.

JE: How long are you there?

JT: I was there until September of ‘45.

JE: That had to be a long time for you.

JT: Yeah.

JE: Because you were waiting for this nerve to heal?

JT: No, they’d just done all their operations on me and, actually, they gave me a leave before I got discharged. I came back to Tulsa on a leave, and I was here about 2-3 weeks or a month and went back, and they handed me a Purple Heart and discharged.

JE: How many operations did you have on your leg?

JT: Just the one operation because the sciatic nerve was not cut in two. They said it was 90-some-odd-percent cut in two. They cut before from about this far below (Gesturing to his leg) to up here. In the back, they did the same thing. I don’t know why they have to cut you that far to operate on your nerve, but they did.

JE: You’re holding about a foot there.

JT: Yeah, it’s at least a foot from here to here. I don’t know whether they pull it down there and tie it together or what.

JE: And, again, they did not take the shrapnel out.

JT: Doctor says, “It will do more damage by going after it than it will by leaving it.” It’s still there. I’ve seen the X-rays of it, and it looks like the side of my thumb nails.

JE: And no effects of it after leaving it in there?

JT: No, sir, other than I have a numb leg from here on down.

JE: Today?

JT: Not completely numb — just the skin flesh or whatever you want to call it.

JE: To the touch?

JT: Yeah.

JE: So that’s a reminder, always.

JT: You don’t never get to forget it.

JE: Yeah. It lingers. What about food you ate over there?

JT: When we landed over there, we ate these rations. K-Rations and 3-for-1 and this type of thing. You never had no food for probably 3 or 4 months, and the doctors will tell you that your stomach don’t shrink up, but I say it will shrink up. Because when I got regular food, I couldn’t eat very much for a while. It was probably 3 or 4 months after we landed on the beach before I got regular food. We was eating K-rations or 3-and-1. They have a little can of stuff — concentrated food — packages of gum, a cigarette pack…

JE: That came in the rations?

JT: Oh, yeah. It taught you to smoke.

JE: Did you smoke?

JT: Yeah, I did, for a while, but I quit. I didn’t smoke long.

JE: Yeah. Bet that was really tasteless after a while, huh?

JT: Oh, yeah, terrible.

JE: You must have lost weight. How much did you weigh when you were in battle?

JT: I think 128. But, physically, I was in beautiful shape because when we was in Wisconsin, we we were on snow skis. If you wasn’t in good shape, you didn’t last long. We went on a 15-mile hike, you had to be in good shape.

JE: Yeah.

JT: If you’ve been in training yourself, you know what you have to do. Of course, the worst thing I’d ever done is when we’d take hikes with snow shoes. A snow shoe will put you up in a hurry.

JE: And you didn’t have to do any work with snow after you left Camp McCoy.

JT: No. That’s right. It snowed, of course, in France, but that was just a regular snow. It didn’t among to nothing.

JE: So you’re discharged. Did you have nightmares?

JT: I slept next to my sister on 5th Place, and she woke me up any time at night. She checked on me. (Voice crackling with tears)

JE: So you would see in your dreams?

JT: I still don’t know what they were. She had to wake me up.

JE: Did that last for years, the nightmares, or…?

JT: No, I don’t think so. I think probably 6 or 8 months.

JE: How frightening that had to be. After you were discharged, you come back to Tulsa and it’s just time for you to get your bearings again, right?

JT: Yeah.

JE: Did you visit doctors here about your leg when you came back?

JT: They had a medical doctor [unintelligible] where the market used to be, but now there’s a lumber company there; but I went to see him a number of times.

Chapter 7 - Back Home

John Erling (JE): How old are you when you got discharged?

Jim Tygart (JT): 25.

JE: And that was in 1945.

JT: Yeah.

JE: So you’re asking yourself, “What do I do now?”

JT: Yeah. I originally went back to Nabisco. I enjoyed that job, but it would soon seem that, with my drop-foot brace, I couldn’t handle the job. So, you know, they give you the GI Bill.

JE: Yes.

JT: I went out to TU. I was gonna go to TU and get a degree. Well, I went out there and he interviewed me, and I had graduated from high school, but he said, “Your credits won’t get you into TU.” (Chuckling). So I couldn’t get into TU. I ended up going to Spartan Aircraft and Aeronautical School, and I spent 18 months in that school learning the trade.

JE: That trade, then, was what?

JT: Aircraft instrument repair.

JE: And you worked for?

JT: After I got out of school, I originally went to Douglas Aircraft. Douglas was doing government contract jobs. It was not a secure job, because they were doing government contracts. We had a big job coming to us when Kennedy got elected. It was a Skybolt missile.

He said, “When I get elected, I’m canceling that.”

Well, sure enough, when he got elected, why I went out to Douglas and they’d already took my timecard and everybody else was in that thing and they laid ya off.

JE: That was President Kennedy you were talking about.

JT: Yeah.

JE: And you were laid off.

JT: Yeah. So, I went to American Airlines and got a steady job.

JE: And you were there until you retired?

JT: Yes.

JE: And when did you retire?

JT: 1983.

JE: We didn’t talk about your getting married. When did you get married?

JT: After I came home from the Army, my wife’s cousin was married to a guy I was working with at National Biscuit Company. He said, “We’re having a weenie roast somewhere over on West Tulsa at the park, you wanna come over?”

And I went over there and at the weenie roast and Betty was there, and that’s how I got introduced to Betty, my wife.

JE: Was that love at first sight?

JT: Yeah. I was getting old by that time. I was already 25 years old. I didn’t wanna stay single all of my life.

JE: (Chuckling) And how old was she?

JT: She was just 21.

JE: So then you were married in 1947?

JT: August 16th, 1947.

JE: How many children did you have?

JT: Two.

JE: Two sons.

JT: Yeah. She wanted a girl real bad because she liked to sew, but she only had one kidney and the doctor wouldn’t let her get pregnant with more.

JE: The names, then, of your sons?

JT: Delbert Lee.

JE: Delbert Lee?

JT: Yeah.

JE: He’s here, listening to us. And the other son’s name?

JT: Darryl Wayne.

JE: Darryl Wayne? You’re living, then, in Tulsa, you’re working for American Airlines in the ‘50s?

JT: Yeah.

JE: Life is pretty good, isn’t it?

JT: Very good. Making a lot of money.

JE: And a good retirement pay?

JT: Yeah.

JE: What about movies, and radio, and hamburger places — can you kind of recreate for us what you saw Tulsa to be then?

JT: They’s all pretty scarce. You didn’t eat out a lot because, first thing, Betty liked to cook and she was a good cook. So, you pretty much stayed home. I mean, money wasn’t that plentiful. You didn’t have money to spare; you just had money to live by. Of course, I didn’t do things like a lot of people do. I didn’t buy stuff on the credit. If I couldn’t pay for it, I didn’t get it. I still believe that today (Chuckling).

JE: That’s a good way to live. Betty has passed on now, hasn’t she?

JT: Yes, she’d been gone for 6 years.

JE: Okay. Where did you and Betty live at that time?

JT: When I met her, she was on South Cheyanne — the 1200 block — which is under the loop downtown now.

JE: And living out here in Broken Arrow, this was way off in Never Never Land, wasn’t it?

JT: Yes.

JE: Downtown was downtown at 5th and Boston, and Main, and all of that.

JT: Yeah.

JE: Do you remember shopping in those stores?

JT: The one I remember more than anything was Kress’s, which was 3rd and Main. And then over on boston was the uniform people. That’s where I got my Nabisco uniform to wear.

JE: Do you remember Vanderver’s Department Store?

JT: Oh, yeah. Vanderver’s, and Kress’s, and —

JE: — Clarke’s Good Clothes.

JT: Clarke’s, Brown-Dunkin.

JE: Pizza hadn’t come in yet, or had it?

JT: Oh, no, I’d never heard of pizza. (Chuckling)

JE: Right. It’s interesting that people think that was around forever, but it wasn’t. I don’t know when pizza came in if it was sometime in the ‘50s, maybe ‘60s.

JT: Yeah.

JE: What was your favorite hamburger place?

JT: The White Knight.

JE: The White Knight.

JT: On Denver, about 5th Street, I think.

JE: You were talking about your drop-foot. Did that linger with you, do you still walk with a drop-foot?

JT: No. I wore the drop-foot brace for probably about 12 years. I’m not sure exactly, but 12 or 15 years, and then it got to where I could do without it.

JE: The nerve was taking that long to…?

JT: To heal.

JE: To heal. Did you ever think you’d come out of this, ever?

JT: No. I didn’t realize it was going to get that good.

JE: And now you walk normally.

JT: I’m not as good as you are, or as good as he is. I have to watch where I put my foot more, because I could have a sprained ankle really easy. But other than that, it’s normal; I consider it to be normal.

JE: You’re in good health. You appear to be. You’re 97 year old.

JT: I don’t take no medicine.

JE: Wow!

JT: None, whatsoever.

JE: Doctors must wonder what’s wrong with you — you don’t take medicine! (Laughing)

JT: No. (Chuckling)

JE: Isn’t that something?

JT: It is. I’m very thankful for it.

JE: You live in this home by yourself?

JT: It’s lonesome, too.

JE: I’m sure it is. But you’re capable. Do you drive?

JT: Yes, I do drive.

JE: So you are that independent, that you can go to the grocery store?

JT: Yes.

JE: You are blessed.

JT: I am. Very much so.

JE: But you have a son nearby who comes and visits you a lot.

JT: He’s got his eyeballs on me all the time.

JE: (Chuckling) Pretty independent, and that’s so amazing. You’re 97. How old was your father when he died?

JT: My father was 98, but he lacked 8 days of being 99. So we’re going to say 99.

JE: Yup. Absolutely. You look forward to being 100?

JT: (Laughing) If my health is good, I look forward to it, yes. I went to my stock broker’s the other day and he had me listed on his sheet at 103.

JE: (Laughing) So they figured if somebody’s made it to 97 in good health, you could be living to 103.

JT: Yeah.

JE: That is great.

Chapter 8 - Patriotism

John Erling (JE): What kind of advice do you give to children, to grandchildren, great-grandchildren?

Jim Tygart (JT): Well, it’s kinda sad to say, but I don’t have to advise them on nothing. They take care of themselves.

JE: What about young people listening to your story? They’re coming on, and they’re living their life, they have their freedoms of America. You fought to protect those freedoms, and you remember it everyday in your leg. What do you say to those young people?

JT: Just be thankful for what you have because it could be much worse.

JE: Who knows what the world would be today if the United States hadn’t pushed Germany back?

JT: I look back at what went on, and Hitler, if he hadn’t attacked so many fronts at the same time, he would have gave us a lot more problems than what we had. But if you remember, he was fighting us and Russia at the same time.

JE: Yeah.

JT: And that just didn’t work out.

JE: What have been your thoughts about patriotism over the years? Do you think America is patriotic enough?

JT: No, I don’t think they are, no. I don’t think the younger generation of the people realize what went on or what could have happened if we hadn’t won that war.

JE: No, they don’t. And it’s one of the reasons that we talk to you, so they can hear what you went through and kinda give them a little bit of an idea what went on.

JT: Yeah.

JE: We’ve had these football players taking a knee at the national anthem.

JT: That makes me so mad. If I see it happen, I’ll turn that television off. Jerry Jones was one that said, “They’re not going to play for me if they take a knee.” And I’m thankful for him for that.

JE: For the sake of history, for those who listen back to this, it was the quarterback, Kapernick, from the San Francisco 49ers, who took a knee during the national anthem because of racial issues that he thought were unfair and then it’s become a major issue in the United States. And then our President, President Trump, said, “If you take a knee, you shouldn’t play,” and then they were taking a knee in spite of him, so it kind of snowballed.

JT: Yeah.

JE: But there’s no reason to take a knee, you’re saying, for any reason.

JT: Not when the national anthem’s being played. No, sir. Some people call it their freedom of speech, and I don’t know what exactly what the freedom of speech should entail, but it shouldn’t entail that.

JE: I sit here in admiration for what you did and what you went through. I’m so glad that you told your story; it needs to be heard, and it will be remembered now forever. And I might say that you might agree with me here: That if I ever see a veteran — maybe he has a cap on or something — you don’t have to say much to them. I just walk up to them and I say, “Thank you for your service,” shake their hand, and walk off. You don’t have to stand there and engage in long conversation, but just acknowledge it. Would you agree?

JT: Yes.

JE: People have done that to you, have they?

JT: Yes, they have. But I kinda dodge that type of thing. And I have a cap with all of my medals and that thing on it, but I don’t wear it because I don’t like to be recognized.

JE: You said “medals.” Did you receive more than the Purple Heart?

JT: I’ll just show you.

JE: You have them here, framed. The Purple Heart’s right here in the middle.

JT: Yes.

JE: And what are some of these other medals that you’ve received?

JT: It’s on the back there. They’re listed what they are. They’re different medals.

JE: American Defense Service medal; Victory in WWII; European, Africa, and Middle Eastern Campaign; Medal set: American Campaign, regular size. We’ll give them credit: The Frame House in Broken Arrow put this all together.

JT: Oh, yeah.

JE: The Indian —

JT: That’s the division that I was in.

JE: That division was?

JT: Second division.

JE: Field artillery.

JT: Yeah, they had infantry people, field artillery, and all of the others things that went with it. In a division, there’s approximately 16,000 people.

JE: This currency that’s here, what’s that?

JT: That’s a British Pound. When I was in Wales, I knew I was going somewhere; I didn’t know where we was going. And that’s everybody in our unit; they got to sign that pound.

JE: Oh, wow. Yeah. There are all the names in your unit.

JT: Yup. Mm-hmm. They’re all there.

JE: What was your grade when you left?

JT: Not very much. 5th grade.

JE: 5th grade tech.

JT: Yup.

JE: Well, I can say, on this piece here, there are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 — at least 6 medals — that you received for your service.

JT: And this is the Bronze Stars.

JE: We didn’t mention that, did we?

JT: No. How many’s there? 3 or 5? I forgot which it is.

JE: It says here you were in the European Theater, you received the Purple Heart, 3 Bronze Stars, 2 Overseas Service bars.

JT: Okay.

JE: And this is honoring you, World War II Honoree. When did you receive that? Is that recent?

JT: I don’t know how long I’ve had it.

JE: Is this the WWII in Washington DC Memorial? Were you there?

JT: Yeah. He used to take care of that (Gesturing towards son in the room, Delbert).

Delbert Tygart (DT): It was the Honor Flights.

JT: That was his job for a long time.

JE: The Honor Flights to take veterans back. Were you able, ever, to travel back to France, in Normandy?

JT: He tried to get me to go, but I just haven’t had the urge to go. No, I have not been.

JE: Probably didn’t wanna bring up those memories again.

JT: No.

JE: Well, thank you, Jim — first of all, for your service.

JT: Yessir.

JE: It’s to be highly commended and we thank you for it. And thank you for telling your story here today, you did a really good job.

JT: Thank you.

JE: With respect, I thank you.